Omar Rezaq

Omar Rezaq (1963-) was an Abu Nidal Organization member who led the hijacking of EgyptAir Flight 648 on 23 November 1985. He was the only one of the hijackers to survive, and he was imprisoned.

Biography
Omar Rezaq was born in 1963 in Lebanon to a family of Palestinian origin, and he joined the Abu Nidal Organization terrorist group. On 23 November 1985, Rezaq and two other hijackers boarded EgyptAir Flight 648 in Athens, Greece during its voyage to Cairo, Egypt. The hijackers were heavily-armed with guns and grenades, and they hijacked the plane ten minutes after takeoff, forcing it to land at Luqa Airport in Malta, as the plane did not have enough fuel to make it to Libya. Rezaq and the two other hijackers were attacked by Egyptian Army commandos that bombarded the plane with explosives and gunfire, and the two other hijackers were killed, while Rezaq had a punctured lung. He served only seven years in a Maltese prison before heading to Ghana and then to Nigeria, and in July 1993 he was extradited to the United States. On 19 July 1996, he was sentenced to life imprisonment by a US court.